Song Challenge: Day 16

Today’s challenge is “a song that’s a favorite from any genre.” R.E.M. is one of my top bands. I respect them for disbanding when they thought it was time, but I miss them. They have so many songs I never get tired of listening to. Though “Losing My Religion” was probably overplayed on music television, both the song and the video are classic.

Jim arrived here around noon today after Tim picked him up at the airport. We haven’t seen him since the month before the flood in 2017, so this visit is long overdue. Just as always, it’s like those years never happened. As the four of us sat at the table and talked, it was easy to remember why we started writing together. Just missing Timmy from the group!

Song Challenge: Day 13


Some beautiful fabric squares Debby gave me at Christmas. I haven’t decided what to do with them yet, but I know I will.

Today’s challenge is “a song you like from the ’70s.” That’s the decade with the shifting variety of music that probably most influenced me, so where would I begin? I reached back to 1971 for a song that in my soul remains larger than a single artist, time, or place.

Wikipedia provides an an interesting account of the history of “What’s Going On” and Marvin Gaye.

Button Sunday and Song Challenge, Day 10

Hope everyone remembered to set their clocks forward last night before bed. Today’s song challenge is “a song that makes you sad.” For me, “Time in a Bottle” is a song many people call romantic, but I’ve always heard it as sad, so that’s how it makes me feel.


Yesterday, we had to say goodbye to Debby’s Stewie, who just a few days ago celebrated his seventeenth birthday. He’s had health issues the last few months and among other things, struggled with his appetite. Today, the staff at Gulf Coast offered him a little feast of birthday cake and ice cream, among other goodies, and he loved the bacon. It was already gone from his tray in this photo! He also enjoyed a bit of the birthday cake and ice cream and ate all the Cheetos before his gentle, loving goodbye. Debby’s going to miss the dog she called “the little Frenchman” so much.

Stewie was originally her grandchildren’s dog. When they had to give him up, she invited him to live with her. He and her big black lab Harley became good friends. Harley died in 2019, also on March 9. Now they’re together again.


We may not be able to save time in a bottle, but it has no power over the bonds of love.

Late but sweet

Yes, it’s been two weeks since Valentine’s Day. Yes, I understand the perspective that it’s a manufactured holiday meant to make people spend money on flowers and candy and jewelry and dining out and trips, etc. And it makes some people feel lonely and alone, or resentful for being expected to feel lonely and alone, when they are actually quite content with their lives. So here’s a message from the bottom of my heart–or the bottom of my Hershey’s Kisses.

Love is love. Celebrate it any day or every day with friends, family members, family pets, and romantic partners. Or just celebrate because Snoopy was created, and he’s amazing.

Coming up…


Debby’s birthday is tomorrow, and that’s the photo of past birthday celebrations at Houndstooth Hall I’ll post on Instagram tomorrow morning. Getting this in because tomorrow’s post will be the Photo Friday theme.

We’ll be celebrating on Sunday Monday night with dinner and cake, because that’s when everyone’s more available. Right now, pollen allergies are kicking my butt. Hopefully, Sunday Monday will be a low pollen day!

Photo Friday, No. 896

Current Photo Friday theme: Pandemic

On the Photo Friday site, when they gave the theme, they asked these questions: What subjects captivated your attention? Did the pandemic influence your photography?

Below is why I chose a current “selfie” as my photo.

The pandemic made my world smaller. Prior to the shutdown, I had a career that kept me busy 10 to 14 hours a day. Part of my volunteer work for that organization involved shooting photos of rescued dogs, cats, the occasional pig, and a few other surprising creatures, three times a week. I had plans to transition out of my volunteer photography for them so I could travel more in 2020. But early in the year, the organization laid off a majority of the staff, including me, because of the pandemic. Like many others, I quarantined. I didn’t travel. I adjusted to life without the income from the paying part of my job and without the coworkers who inspired me. My world became what was around me, so that’s what I photographed: my home, family who lives on the same property, and our dogs. I found ways to photograph my hobbies (collecting dolls, listening to music, reading, journaling, painting, homemaking, blogging), and my passion: writing fiction.

When the pandemic shifted in 2021 and the world began opening up, other than seeing more friends, not a lot changed because I decided to retire. I still don’t travel. I haven’t been bothered by the slow march of lines up and down and across my face. I didn’t care when my hair, that for twenty years had its roots colored brunette, and later to strands of brunette and blonde, became gray and white during the pandemic. I’m grateful to be here and for all that I have. I try to adapt to and deal with the challenges. I still mostly photograph what’s around me.

Hearts and no flowers

A few of my little stone and crystal friends because the Internet is full of hearts right now.


Labradorite and rose quartz


A couple of river rocks


Healerite and goldstone


Black moonstone and amethyst


Amazonite and white banded carnelian

They remind me there are so many variations on love in the Neverending Saga. Love can be…complicated.

The perfect music for writing on an overcast, drizzly day when my characters are grappling with love and all it demands and provides is music by the great Texas blues guitarists, the Vaughan brothers. I’ll always miss Stevie Ray and wonder what music he’d have created if he hadn’t died too soon. The biography Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan, by Alan Paul and Andy Aledort, is a good account of him if you like biographies. Many years ago, I wrote a musician who turned his life around from a very dark place, and Stevie Ray Vaughan later proved to me that not only could it be done, he dedicated so much time to helping others who grappled with addictions.


Jimmie Vaughan, Strange Pleasure; The Vaughan Brothers, Family Style; Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, Greatest Hits, The Sky Is Crying, and The Real Deal: Greatest Hits 2; various artists including Jimmie Vaughan, A Tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan.

ETA: Oops, missed one. Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble’s In Step.

In the live version (below) of “Look At Little Sister,” watch for the smoothest guitar switch ever after a string breaks (around 2:40). I freely confess to having a moment like this in the Saga as tribute to Stevie Ray and the guitar techs who make live music fun for us all. I’m so glad Tom and I (with Lynne) got to see Stevie Ray in person after we moved to Texas.

Mood: Monday


The Primrose Girl
oil on canvas
William Ward Laing, English, ca 1873 to 1902

Today is National Primrose Day for the flower lovers among you.

I didn’t watch the Grammys last night, but congratulations to Miley Cyrus for her first Grammy wins, Best Pop Solo Performance and Record of the Year, for her song “Flowers.” I read a brief history of the song at some point recently. It originally had a sad trajectory, then somewhere in the process she turned it into a song of empowerment after a broken relationship. That and being catchy definitely worked to the song’s advantage.


Fun photo thinking back to that day in October 2009 when my Miley Cyrus doll and I went shopping. Now I wish our nearby antique mall still existed. Debby and I loved browsing there. It was a great place to find unique gifts. Too late, I realize I could have had a lot of fun posing my dolls among the antiques and collectibles. Missed opportunities.

The way I’m structuring the seventh novel in the Neverending Saga is tricky, and I’m working it out as I go. Even if it has to change, I’m going to be thinking of “Flowers” when I get to the character who’s made some big changes in her life between the sixth book and this one. I want her to have that spirit.

ETA: Oh, for crap’s sake. Just read this reference on a post-Grammy sum-up of how well women fared in the awards last night: –From Eilish’s heart-stopping performance of “What Was I Made For?”—wearing cat’s-eye sunglasses and a 1960s sweater like Peggy Olson from “Mad Men”—

If only they’d done their homework, they’d have understood Billie Eilish’s outfit was a tribute to Barbie, the film, and the Barbie doll. The photo from the Grammys:


Photo by Valerie Macon/Agence France-Presse, Getty Images

Eilish was wearing classic Barbie!

Poodle Parade Barbie, my 1995 reproduction of the 1965 original


Shared this version because the film version makes me cry, and I still haven’t seen the movie yet.

Run to you


The most recent play list: Diana Ross and the Supremes 2-CDs, Anthology. Not really sure why they were in the middle of the “T”s but they have now been relocated correctly in the CD binders. Also listened to the Trio CD from Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, and Emmylou Harris.


Forthcoming: U2’s Achtung, Baby 1991, and Pop, 1997.
I didn’t lose any U2 albums in the flood. What I had was on cassettes long ago and long gone, including Rattle and Hum, which I’ll likely get again. I must have something in iTunes–Oh, yes! The one everyone with an iTunes account received free in September 2014 before it was released that October, Songs of Innocence. I remember the bitterness from people who aren’t U2 fans having it downloaded into their iTunes without their consent. I also have “Invisible,” the RED edition, in iTunes.

I have no beef with U2. Sometimes I agree with their messages; sometimes I don’t. Some of their music resonates with me, some doesn’t. I used a tear of their sheet music to get a lyric for a painting I did a couple of years ago. Afterward, I was thrilled to remember I have a brother-in-law who loves U2, so I offered, and he gave a home to, the painting. That made me really happy, because I love him and respect what U2 means to him.

I’m making great effort not to amplify what distresses me most in the world. I’m trying to make my little world, including Houndstooth Hall and its writing sanctuary, as well as this blog, places where I feel safe. I can’t always shut down my anxieties and distress over global events, politics, war, and hate. I can only try to manage them. I appreciate the people in my life who understand this isn’t a new struggle for me, but it has been exacerbated by several factors in recent years.

I saw this the other day and it resonated, too. Doing my best.

Below, one of my favorite U2 songs, is supposed to be about a guy who’s fallen in love and is a little overwhelmed by it. But it always makes me think of a message my mother once sent to me through Tom:
“Tell Becky to stop trying to save the world.”

Mood: Monday

There’s art. Assign the mood it evokes for you, regardless of the painting’s name.

Solace
oil and mixed media on canvas, 2015
©Deedra Ludwig, USA


Then there are coloring pages. While looking through this book, ponds were still on my mind. Started coloring just before bedtime one night to wind down. Resumed a day later when waiting for an appointment while also plotting and storybuilding in my head. Finally finished it today when I got home from a run of several errands.

Below is what I colored.

During writing time, these were on the playlist.


Switchfoot, The Best Yet; Taylor Swift, Fearless: Taylor’s Version, two disks; Red: Taylor’s Version; two disks.

I’d forgotten there’s a song on that Switchfoot CD that I gave to one of my Saga couples long ago. In fact, she even uses an image in it to describe her attraction to him. It so happens to be the male character I’m writing now, so the song was helpful for writing him (even though he hasn’t met her yet).

I’ll be getting more Taylor Swift music. I like listening to her. I understand why adolescent girls like her. I would have, too, when I was a ‘tween/teenager. I’m glad I had (deep breath!) Dusty Springfield, Lulu, the Supremes, Carole King, Gladys Knight, Carly Simon, Mama Cass, Aretha Franklin, Karen Carpenter, Cher, Grace Slick, Joni Mitchell, Janis Joplin, Tina Turner, Janis Ian, Linda Ronstadt, Joan Baez, Emmylou Harris, and later, Rickie Lee Jones, Debbie Harry, Chrissie Hynde, Ann and Nancy Wilson, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks. And Madonna, Annie Lennox, Bonnie Raitt, Whitney Houston, Sinéad O’Connor, Alanis Morissette, Sheryl Crow.  Some of the women I’ve left out include country singers and girl groups that came before I was buying music or had control of the radio or stereo the way my parents and older siblings did. I loved plenty of them, too, and I never listened to anyone who said they weren’t as good as their “favorites” or that rock and roll or popular music was really the place of male artists.

ETA on 1/30/24: You know, it was just a matter of being in the “S” section when I got to my two Taylor Swift CDs. Timing. Thanks to my goal every week of getting a notification that says, “Your screen time was down __% last week for an average of __ hours, __ minutes a day,” I’ve eliminated seeing a lot of online hate and vitriol. No Fear Of Missing Out in that regard.

ETA on 1/31/24: Sorry for being vague, but I’m cackling at this and need to note it for myself: 150 seconds out of 9.5 hours. Or 150 seconds out of 34200 seconds. Math is fun.